This sober and well-constructed adventure accurately conveys the geopolitical instability of the era and is leavened with...
“Our work is an ongoing struggle with unintended consequences,” says Marcus Burrows, the titular apothecary of Meloy’s previous novel for young adults (2011).
The work to which he refers is using alchemy to halt the spread of nuclear weapons in the 1950s, and in this sequel, he is joined in his quest again by the resourceful and quick-witted 16-year-old Janie Scott. Meloy’s deft exposition sets the stage swiftly, so that when the boarding school where Janie has been sent for safekeeping is quickly revealed as a treacherous place and her bogus expulsion in the second chapter plunges her into action, readers already understand her history. The narration shifts among Janie and her allies: Benjamin Burrows, the apothecary’s brave son; Pip, the wily London con artist; and Jin Lo, the tortured Chinese chemist. This mirrors their experiences when they discover an elixir that enables them to see through one another’s eyes while they cross the globe to reunite, head off nuclear disaster and cope with the fallout from their own alchemical experimentation. The denouement leaves room for both optimism and a third (as yet unconfirmed) installment.
This sober and well-constructed adventure accurately conveys the geopolitical instability of the era and is leavened with just enough magic, chaste romance and humor to appeal to middle-grade readers through teens. (art not seen) (Historical fantasy. 10-14)Pub Date: June 4, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-16245-9
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
Fans of mythology-based fantasies will devour this adventure and anxiously await the next installment.
Abby is your average 12-year-old North Carolinian—and Viking.
She has been eager for years to follow in her mother's footsteps as an Aesir, or Viking warrior charged with protecting the world from Grendels, descendants of the same monster faced down by Beowulf. Still reeling from her mother’s death four years ago, Abby is worried because she hasn’t developed the unusual abilities needed by Aesirs. After she is attacked at home, she and her father head to Vale Hall, an elite Minnesota private school her mother also attended. Along the way they are attacked again, and her father falls into a mysterious coma. Abby is positive a Grendel is after her, but the Viking council at Vale Hall doesn't believe her. She quickly befriends Grimsby and Gwynn, each with their own burdens and secrets. Together they try to find a cure for her father, in the process uncovering secrets from her mother's past and discovering some truths hiding at Vale Hall. This entertaining debut novel seamlessly blends Norse mythology with a modern-day setting to tell an action-packed and humorous story. In addition, the book explores grief, growing up, and starting over with sensitivity and insight. Abby and most other characters are cued as White; Gwynn is described as Asian American.
Fans of mythology-based fantasies will devour this adventure and anxiously await the next installment. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-63607-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Any yarn with the phrase “pinwheeling flatulence juggernaut” is a must-read, and not just for fans of Fowl play.
Artemis Fowl’s preteen sibs have it out with archnemesis Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye one last time.
Or so it would seem, though, considering Lord Teddy’s fondness for clones and the various nonpermanent fatalities in earlier episodes, nothing should be taken for granted. In a plot aptly framed as “a big bang, followed by a series of smaller bangs, then another big bang”—many of which turn out to be epic gaseous blasts or, to use the delighted Beckett’s term, “fartsplosions”—the evil genius’s latest (as the omniscient narrator puts it) “elaborate and unnecessarily complicated” revenge scheme pits young “aspiring mastermind” Myles and his action-loving brother, aided by diminutive but capable blue-skinned pixel (pixie-elf) Lazuli Heitz and the ghosts of a large number of indignant Bleedham-Dryes whom Lord Teddy has murdered over the years, against first a goblin hit squad then, climactically, an army of fireball-shooting goblins. Generous measures of banter and villainous gloating grease the wheels as well as ridiculous contrivances that pull the twins from any number of obviously hopeless pickles on the way to their hard-won triumph. In an epilogue set in Ho Chi Minh City, Colfer closes another series arc by dropping in a tantalizing revelation about Lazuli’s hidden parentage. Magical cast members come in a variety of colors; human ones read as White.
Any yarn with the phrase “pinwheeling flatulence juggernaut” is a must-read, and not just for fans of Fowl play. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-368-07567-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
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